These tiles came out of the kiln this morning. They are brand new, something I am trying. When I was at Penland – ( yes, more posts coming soon…) it was all about texture. Carving stamps, imprinting textures onto clay… So when I got home, my first order of business was to continue with texture. I have quite a few stamps that I have carved, and I use them in tiles, usually on edges or to accentuate the icon/figure/image. For this batch I wanted to highlight the texture itself. I textured huge slabs, and used them as the background layer. Then I did my sculpted items on small tiles with beveled edges. I like the strong simple color of the icon contrasting with the intricate colored texture behind.

Here’s a detail:

I planned to have beaded details dangling from the base of each tile. The miscellaneous charms I had were often too small in scale. My stash of treasures yielded some oldies – but goodies; beads I have had for 20+ years! Dating back to the early days of beaded jewelry, in the 80’s, they were large, yet perfect for this application. Sweet! I love serendipitous moments like that.

These tiles will debut at Art on the Avenue this weekend in Alexandria VA. Wish them well. Would love to hear what you think, also…